TI Torah Study Parashat Vaetchanan: A Deep Dive into "Shema"

August 17, 2024 / 13 Av 5784

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Parashat Summary (further your study on this portion at ReformJudaism.org )

• Moses pleads with God to let him enter the Land of Israel with the people, but God once more refuses his request. (3:23–28)
• Moses orders the Children of Israel to pay attention and follow the laws given by God in order to be worthy of the land they are about to receive. (4:1–40)
• Specific areas of the land are set aside to serve as cities of refuge. (4:41–43)
• The covenant at Sinai and the Ten Commandments are recalled. Once again, the people are exhorted to heed God’s commandments. (5:1–30)
• Moses speaks the words of the Sh’ma, the credo of Judaism, and commands Israel to show their love for Adonai and keep God’s laws and ordinances. (6:1–25)
• Moses warns the people not to commit idolatry by worshiping the gods of the nations they will conquer in Israel. (7:1–11)

Laws/Hallachot around the Recitation of the Shema

Commentaries below quoted/summarized from Harvey J. Fields "A Torah Commentary for Our Times: Numbers and Deuteronomy"

Rashi translates as “Hear, O Israel: Adonai, whom we recognize as our God, will one day be accepted by all people as One, and their belief in one God will unite us as one human family.”

Rambam (Maimonides) sees it as a theological declaration that “the Cause of all existence is One.” God’s unity is eternal and unique, God creates all that is and continues to create all that will be, God has no body or form. God’s power may not be compared to any other power known to human beings. God is not subject to physical limitations or definitions… God’s power is endless.”

Sefer HaChinukh 417:1 The mitzvah of unifying God - this is that we were commanded to believe that the Holy One of Blessing is the actor of all reality, the Master of All, One without any partner, as it is written "Hear Israel, Ad-nay is our G-d Ad-nay is one, and this is a positive commandment, not a myth, but the explanation of the Shema is to say 'receive from me this one thing, and know it, and believe in it, that the Holy Name who is our G-d is one. And the proof that this is a positive commandment is found in the fact that they, may their memory always be for a blessing, said in the midrashim 'in order to receive upon oneself the kingdom of heaven, that is to say, thanks in private and with faith.

Nachmanides: "The words of the Shema are a very personal statement by Moses. In most cases where Moses uses the words “Hear, O Israel,” he follows them with “Adonai your God,” not with “Adonai our God.” Why does Moses, in this particular situation, choose to say our God? God has liberated the people from slavery, has provided for their needs in the desert, and has given them the Ten Commandments. Now, in reminding the people of all God has done, Moses does not want to exclude himself. In declaring God’s unity with the words of the Shema, he makes it clear that he is including himself as a witness to God’s goodness and power. (Ayin / Dalet spell ayd – meaning witness: Jews bear “witness” to God’s unity and power."

Rabbi Abraham Samuel Benjamin Sofer (19th century Hungarian interpreter) Hear, O Israel: Adonai our God provides all the goodness we experience, and Adonai our God is the author of the harsh judgments we endure. Adonai is One.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, "When Moses first spoke the words of the Shema, he meant to clarify a significant problem faced by the Israelites and by all people as well: the problem of understanding God’s unity and the way God works in our lives and in the universe. When things go smoothly, when one feels a warm glow of love, success, and good health, one naturally attributes this to be the good, compassionate nature of God (Adonai) But, when sudden tragedy strikes, the death of a love one, national calamity, an earthquake, one feels the awesome and inexplicable power of God (Elohim). The holy Zohar teaches that this seeming split in God’s character is a result of our imperfect vision. If we could see more clearly, we’d understand that everything God does is done for the good of humanity. Perhaps we can’t always perceive it, but how can a finite creature be expected to fathom the Infinite Will? If our eyes and ears were truly opened, we would comprehend that everything in the world, both the things we think of as being clearly good and those other things that frighten us with their might, emerges from a compassionate and loving God; in other words, 'Adonai is One.'"

Jacob J. Weinstein - The Shema is against the plurality of small gods and half-gods and no gods; it is against the fragmentizing idolatry of worshiping a part for a whole… It is a unity against the duality that would neatly package life into good and evil compartments and assign evil to a lesser scapegoat god, leaving to the chief god the dignity of presiding over unalloyed good... The Shema is for a common parenthood of God… the unity of humanity. It is for that diversity found in a family… The Shema says; Hear, thou! God is One; therefore, God’s children must be one.”

Morris Adler - Hear, O Israel… means that every Jew is a member… of a community that extends not only in many lands but throughout history. Adonai our God… means whatever be our condition… we will not … deny life, despair of the ultimate vindication of righteousness. Adonai is One… means this is not a universe in which evil has a chance of winning. The ultimate authority, the final sovereign is not the force of army legions but the God who in time will assert Sovereignty.

Rabbi David Hartman - The Shema is an expression of the partnership between the Jewish people and God. In reciting the Shema, we hear God addressing the community. The emphasis, so to speak, is “hear, O Israel: study, reflect, and be attentive to the revelatory message of Torah. It is the moment of commitment of the community to God and to God’s Torah. In the Shema… one captures the felt immediacy of the revelatory moment of Sinai. God invites the community to enter into the covenant.

Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi of Yanof- When you say the Shema it should be as if you are reading a letter from the king, which was written to you and only today and which you cherish. You listen to each and every word. So should you pay careful attention to each and every word of the Shema.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks - Shema Yisrael does not mean “Hear, O Israel”. It means something like: “Listen. Concentrate. Give the word of G-d your most focused attention. Strive to understand. Engage all your faculties, intellectual and emotional. Make His will your own. For what He commands you to do is not irrational or arbitrary but for your welfare, the welfare of your people, and ultimately for the benefit of all humanity.” In Judaism faith is a form of listening: to the song creation sings to its Creator, and to the message history delivers to those who strive to understand it. That is what Moses says, time and again in Deuteronomy. Stop looking: listen. Stop speaking: listen. Create a silence in the soul. Still the clamour of instinct, desire, fear, anger. Strive to listen to the still, small voice beneath the noise. Then you will know that the universe is the work of the One beyond the furthest star yet closer to you than you are to yourself – and then you will love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, all your soul and all your might. In G-d’s unity you will find unity – within yourself and between yourself and the world – and you will no longer fear the unknown.

Rabbi Reuven Firestone - Is there one Truth (with a capital T)? Can there be multiple truths? Jewish tradition grapples with this problem by declaring that we will not figure it out. That may seem strange, but we are not expected to figure it out. In the Jewish world, such enigmas can be answered with the word, teyku, a Talmudic Aramaic term that means, literally, "let it stand" or "let it be." The word is interpreted as an acronym for Tishbi yitaretz kushiot uva’ayot, meaning "Elijah the prophet (the 'Tishabite') will answer such questions (at the end of time)." In other words, some questions simply cannot be answered by us, though we are nevertheless expected to grapple with them and the implications they raise. The universe is just too overwhelming, and the greatness of God is beyond imagination. Yet, we are instructed to keep striving to understand.

Our Tanach includes many portions and stories that struggle with these issues without providing a final answer. Job, who suffers immeasurably, learns that no one is wise enough to give an account of the heavens (Job 38:37). And while Ecclesiastes considers it all a "striving after wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14), the author continues striving nevertheless.

Our tradition does not expect us to find the answers to the riddle of Truth, but it does expect us to grapple with the questions. In Jewish tradition, the unity and oneness of God does not require a unity of opinion and belief. In fact, it teaches the opposite. Judaism stresses engagement in a process of struggling to understand, a process that ideally includes engaging in the quest with others. It will never provide "the" answer, but the very process of seeking and trying out answers, according to both Torah and Talmud, is in itself a spiritual act.